In 7 Wonders Duel, a 2015 game published by Repos Production and designed by Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala, two players compete over resources, commerce, military, science, and culture to become the top civilization. At its core, this is an engine building game where players take turns adding cards from a central market to build their civilization.

The common market is laid out in an overlapping pyramid shape. You can follow a handy schematic at the start of each age, with rows alternating between face up and face down cards. Only cards that are not covered by another card are available to the players, which forces enterprising players to plan ahead for cards that will be made available later in the round.

Everything you need to know about pyramid construction!

On a player’s turn, he or she will take one of three possible actions: purchase a card and add it to their civilization, trash a card and gain gold, or build one of their available “Wonders of the World.”

There are three ways to win–– and prove once and for all that your civilization is the top dog:

Military victory= When one player marches all the way to the end of the military scoring track.

Science victory= When one player collects six unique science tokens.

Culture victory= Whoever has the most victory points collected throughout the game if neither condition 1 or 2 is met at the end of the third age.

Why It’s Wonderful… (Heh)

First Age Pyramid

Short. This game actually plays in about 30 minutes as advertised on the box (a rarity in the world of board games). There will be 60 actions taken in every game of 7 Wonders Duel, but most turns you will be much shorter than the 30 seconds implied since it is easy (and essential) to plan ahead.

Of course, a short playtime isn’t praiseworthy alone. Tic-Tac-Toe is a much shorter game, and I wouldn’t call it great.

The remarkable achievement of game design here is that 7 Wonders Duel manages to pack a full civilization building experience inside that 30 minutes of game play. It presents players with surprisingly rich strategic and tactical decisions on each turn, and carefully tailored mechanics evoke progress with each move.

The strategic decisions are evident right off the bat. The first thing you’ll do in a game of Duel is draft the Wonders cards. These are the “Seven Wonders of the World,” expensive building projects that will grant one time powerful effects when built.

The “Seven Twelve Wonders of the World”!

Both players begin the game with four, but only seven can be built over the course of the game. This race to finish constructing Wonders will make players want to select Wonders that require similar resources to build. That said, with three ways to win, it is also wise to determine how you intend to win the game early on and draft Wonders with powers conducive to that strategy. This tension between efficiency and effectiveness will remain a constant theme throughout each game of 7 Wonders Duel.

In the game play itself, long term strategy should stay at the forefront of players’ minds. As I referenced earlier, the pyramid of cards forces players to look ahead in order to be successful. The pyramid, a mixture of open and hidden information, should clue players in to what resources they’ll need to purchase the cards most vital to their long term goals, and when they are or may be coming up.

The strategy, while important, is just the staging for the battle. It is in the tactics of decisions made on each turn where the war is fought. For example, I’ll often look ahead and know what card I need to get my engine going, but thinking through how to make sure I get that card is a very different thought process. I have to ask myself interesting questions like, how can I progress the game in such a way that my opponent is forced to uncover the card for me to claim? Or more interesting still, if I must uncover the card, giving my opponent the option to purchase or trash it, then can I hide how important that card is to my plan or incentivize (see: coerce) them into taking something else?

Furthermore, players always need to keep in mind what their opponents are going for. This is a two-player game, meaning that every point their opponent doesn’t score is as good as a point for themselves. Often the right play is not the one that furthers your strategy the most, but one that forces your opponent to stumble. Discarding a card that your opponent needs to produce clay for several of their Wonders can be a game winning play.

I’ll admit that the tactics in this game are not particularly thematic. I can’t figure out how discarding a clay reserve your opponent needs and gaining gold for yourself makes any sense at all in the context of civilization building. But in a quick 30-minute game, I’m willing to live with some abstraction.

In fact, I think the designers were intentional about the abstraction, and did so in way that conveys the most important feeling of a civilization building game – progress. The most obvious example of this is in the structure of the game. You play through three ages, each one with progressively more advanced and expensive cards. In a concrete sense, you are advancing your civilization from groundwork previously laid. Another mechanic evoking progress is linking. Many cards have a symbol on them, which will allow you to purchase a card with the same symbol that shows up in a subsequent age for free.

Thee moon symbol on Altar appears in the cost of Temple, so you can play temple for free if you already have Altar. You can even link all the way up to Pantheon.

Of course, all of this building up culminates with the construction of your Wonders. Nothing says sweet, sweet progress like long term plans coming to fruition.

I love the war track for this feeling as well. It functions like a tug of war, starting at zero that when moved all the way to one end will trigger the military victory.

War track and progress tokens as seen from above.

As you can imagine, this is a pretty powerful incentive to fight back. What you end up seeing is the tide of war moving back and forth over the course of the game – an abstraction of shifting boarders, armies encroaching on enemy’s territories, and armies pushing back.

Concerns

Second Age Pyramid

Perhaps once I’ve played 7 Wonders Duel another 20, 30, or 50 times, I’ll have found these issues to resolve themselves to a large degree. I would think this is certainly possible for the 8th highest rated game of all time on BoardGameGeek (at the time of writing). So I will label these things that gave me pause in my first handful of plays as simply concerns.

The major thing, which some scouting online quickly revealed I’m not alone in, is that there appears to be some balancing issues between the card types. Namely, the science cards are too weak and the commerce cards are too strong.

In my dozen plays, I have yet to see a science victory, and I’ve really gone all in on it at least a couple times to test its viability. I’m sure it will happen at some point. I got close both times, but it just seems like you either have to get very lucky or your opponent has to be totally asleep at the wheel in order to pull it off. To achieve the science victory, you need to collect 6 different science symbols. Unfortunately, your opponent usually just needs to discard/purchase two science cards throughout the course of the game to shut the door completely. Therein lies the problem: your sunk cost in going for the science victory is high, and your opponent’s cost to block is very low.

The worst cards in the game!

Furthermore, there is nothing gained from getting close to a science victory, unlike the military track that awards bonus points for how far advanced you are (not to mention destroying a few of your opponent’s coins along the way). As a result, falling just short almost definitely equates to a loss by victory points.

Compare this to the commerce cards. These allow players to reduce the cost of purchasing certain resources by 50% or more, depending on your opponents production, or just give the player gold for free. This is already incredibly valuable in a game where money is scarce. On top of this, however, they provide the absolutely insane passive bonus of one extra gold every time you take trash a card for gold action for the rest of the game. It’s hard to exaggerate how valuable this is.

The best cards in the game!

The commerce cards are so good that I’d say you need to purchase them any time they are available to you, and if you cannot, then you should trash them so your opponent can’t get them. I’ve played two games against players who didn’t realize this and I ended up with all of the commerce cards through the first two ages; both of my opponents didn’t even want to finish the third age or count scores, realizing the insurmountable hole they were in.

I will note that a nice thing about a game like this is that it self regulates. If both players know that the commerce cards are this important and play accordingly, then it isn’t as much of an issue. Same with knowing that science cards should be a low priority. That said, balance is still a concern for me for a couple of reasons.

First the difference in power level is hidden information for new players. Most will go into the game with the expectation that it is reasonably balanced, and rightfully so. Here, if they pass up commerce cards for resource production in the first age (a seemingly reasonable thing to do), then the game may already be over. This isn’t the end of the world and some advice before the game can do a lot to mitigate potential frustration, but I do think this is a concern for a quick light game you will want to teach to lots of new players.

The other problem with unbalanced cards is that it limits options in game. Ideally if I pick wonders that support the science plan, then I should be able to pick up science cards without feeling like I’m throwing the game. Unfortunately, when I go for this strategy now, as I still want to accomplish the science victory some day, I know I’m not playing optimally.

Again, maybe once I’ve played 30 times and science has won a handful of them, then I’ll feel different, but for now it’s a concern.

The other issue is that this game can sometimes feel milk toast. It’s pleasant and good but missing excitement. There are really cool plays you can make by chaining Wonders together (many give you an extra turn after construction).

The circle of arrows is the symbol for taking an extra action.

I’ve built all four of my Wonders in one turn one time. That was cool, but I’ve come to realize is a pretty typical play, rather than the highlight real moment when I first saw it happen to me.

Winning with military is certainly dramatic as both players are scrambling to pick up any military cards they can, and I assume science would be very much the same, but these are rare occurrences.

Facing down a shield only two spaces away from a military defeat is intimidating.

Far more often it will come down to victory points, which is kind of a vague way to decide which civilization is best. One player may win with slightly more victory points culture cards and military prowess compared to their opponent who had more scientific knowledge, money, and built more Wonders.

Suffice it to say that coming down to victory points can be a bit anticlimactic. This is only exacerbated by the fact that if someone is going all in for military or science then the game is essentially over the moment that they realize they can’t get there, and playing out the rest of the game is just a formality.

Once again, I’ll say that it is possible that this feeling will change once I’ve played more games with more experienced opponents. Perhaps when both players start out determined to play the best game they can and win with victory points, then it will come down to a dramatic one or two-point win. That just hasn’t been my experience so far.

Final Thoughts

Third Age Pyramid

I wish the science cards were a little better. Maybe collecting 4 different ones should also allow you to take a progress token in addition to collecting two of the same, which is slightly aggravating in its own right because collecting matching science symbols pulls you in a completely different direction from the science win condition. I wish the commerce cards were a bit worse. Maybe it two commerce cards should be required to provide one extra coin when trashing a card, or they should simply cost a bit more to build. I wish the conclusions of my games were a bit more dramatic and emotional. All these things kind of bug me about this game.

BUT – when I take a step back and think about all the awesome things this game does well it is easy to overlook those minor annoyances. There is no other game in my collection that I’d rather play with two when I only have an hour, 45-minutes or even just a half hour of time. Playing 7 Wonders Duel is not the most fun that I have playing any game ever, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a blast to play.

All things considered I’m giving this game 4.5 chickens*.

This split between 4 and 5 is to give the game room to change my mind one way or another over future plays. If I play more and some of issues begin to work themselves out as the meta in my apartment advances, then I could see 7 Wonders Duel moving up to a five. If these concerns continue to nag on me, then maybe my interest will wane over time, moving it down to a four. Only time will tell. For now, however, a 4.5 seems perfect.

For what 7 Wonders Duel sets out to do, it accomplishes masterfully. Every time I play, I’m floored by the smart and sleek game design. Even if imperfect, as all games are, It’s my favorite two-player game that plays in under an hour, and one I’d recommend highly to veteran and novice gamers alike.

*Chicken Fryd Games Rating Scale for reference

1: Won’t play – This game has nothing of value.
2: Begrudgingly Play – It’s not for me, but there are at least some good things about it.
3: Gladly Play – This isn’t a game that I need to own, but I like it overall.
4: Actively Play – I want to own this game, and will seek out opportunities to play.
5: Need to Play – If I’m not playing this game, I’m probably thinking about playing it.
6: Will Die if I Don’t Play – A perfect game. I may never give out this score.

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Between a consistent crew showing up to my weekly game night and a couple other events around town, I’ve had the good fortune of playing a bunch of games over recent months. I’ve played some new-to-me games (Clank!, 7 Wonders Duel, and Carcassonne) along with a bunch of favorites (Castles of Burgundy, Five Tribes, Blood Rage), but the only game I’ve actively sought out opportunities to play is Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

The low moments sunk us down into our chairs feeling defeated by our rotten luck. The high moments saw us popping off with high fives. So far AH:TCG has been one hell of a ride.

First Impressions

I picked up AH:TCG on a whim, which isn’t something I normally do or recommend. However, I made an exception after hearing Quinns, of Shut Up and Sit Down fame, nod to it as his game of the year, and after listening to Raf, from Ding and Dent (another top shelf gaming podcast), rave about the game around the same time.

I was underwhelmed by what I got in the base box – a handful of cards to sort, a few sheets of chits to punch out, and only one of each class player card. (This one player card thing really sucks because you’ll need two base games if you want a complete collection. I only have one and have been fine with that so far, but it does limit your deck construction options.)

After reading the rules and watching a run-through online, I wasn’t feeling much better about the purchase. The game follows a sequence familiar in many co-op games. The players take their turn, then the game gets a chance to hit back. Initially, all of this struck me as just your standard co-op fair.

Nonetheless, I went about setting up the game to run through solo as a way to teach myself how to play. (I’m not much of a solo game player, but a solo mode is still a nice perk as a learning tool.) I built the recommended Roland Banks deck and searched the stacks of sorted cards to build the encounter deck, the agenda deck, the act deck, set out appropriate location cards, and set aside other cards as indicated. I’m not going to lie here, the set up in this game is a pain in the ass. So far, not so good.

Finally, still not sold on this game, I begin to play, but my experience is about to change when I reach my hand into the chaos bag for the first time.

I have to tell you about the “chaos bag”. In AH:TCG, similar to other Lovecraft properties by Fantasy Flight Games (Mansions of Madness, Eldritch/Arkham Horror),you play as an investigator who has a base skill in several attributes. Here it is strength, intelligence, agility, and willpower. When you take an action that requires you to do a skill check to see if it is successful, rather than the traditional method of rolling a handful of dice to check success a la Dungeons and Dragons, AH:TCG has players pull a token out of what it calls the “chaos bag.” This is a literal bag –or cup as a desperate measure– (bag not included btw) filled with circular tokens that will modify the skill test. Most are simply numeric values, which can range from +1 to -8. Others are symbols whose effect will change from scenario to scenario. One is an auto fail, and one is an auto succeed.

We play on easy and it is still damn hard.

Let’s say, for example, you want to punch a monster. You have a strength of 4 and the monster has a strength of 3. In order to be successful in your attempt to deal damage, you will need to pull a token from the bag that is no worse than a modifier of -1. If you don’t like those odds, there are tons of interesting ways you can utilize cards to boost your stat and improve your chances before you draw.

Okay. Let me set the scene. I’m sitting alone in my apartment in front of my coffee table, teaching myself a new, fairly complex card game. It’s after work and I’m a little exhausted and still unsure of my impulse purchase. I’ve just drawn my first encounter with a monster and decide I should try to fight it off, so I reach into the bag needing to draw modifier of -1 or better.

Fate in the palm of your hand.

This may sound silly, but in that first moment of fishing around the bag for a token, I was shocked to feel a real emotion bursting forth. The moment before I didn’t care about the result, it was a teaching game after all. But now, with a hidden token in my hand, I really wanted to succeed! I found myself subconsciously thinking please, please, please be good! It was akin to the feeling I get watching the Kansas City Chiefs hike the ball on third and goal, or the Kansas Jayhawks put up a shot in the waning minutes of a tight basketball game. It was the same silent prayer of please, please, please, please work out. I snapped the token out of the bag, and, even before I saw the outcome, I knew I was playing a great game.

Maybe in the abstract this chaos bag mechanic is no different than rolling dice or a random number generator. Don’t get me wrong, there are a ways to mitigate your draw here that wouldn’t work with dice, but, at the end of the day, it is just another way to randomly determine the outcome. Even so, by forcing you to reach in and choose your fate with your own hands, it just feels somehow less abstracted than quickly chucking a handful of dice. In that moment, it gives you the feeling of agency even if you know you don’t – the same way we all have our traditions for our favorite sports teams, and say things like “If I don’t sit in this spot, we’ll lose.”

And so far, everyone I’ve played fishes around the bag, taking a moment to deciding on which token to grab or even tossing one back at the last moment in favor of another.

My chaos bag solution. Plus, you may need a strong drink.

Let’s talk LCGs

(You can’t really review Arkham Horror: The Card Game without talking about the fact that it it’s an LCG. If you already know about LCG’s feel free to skip this section. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then this section is for you.)

AH:TCG is a living card game (LCG), which means that the game is supported by regularly scheduled expansion packs adding new cards for your investigator decks and scenarios to play through. There are small expansions with one scenario and a few investigator cards, which will cost you approximately $15, and larger expansions for $30, with more cards and multiple scenarios.

My budget storage solution, fancy schmancy.

The LCG model is a reaction to the collectable card game (CCG) model popularized by the tabletop juggernaut Magic: the Gathering. In CCGs players have to buy randomly seeded boosters with the hopes of opening the few chase rares or pay premium prices on the secondary market. For my money, the LCG is clearly a superior model for the consumer. You get what you pay for, and only pay for what you want.

That said, let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that the LCG is a cheap alternative. It’s certainly cheaper than the cost to getting into competitive Magic: the Gathering and shelling out $200-800 for a viable deck. Still, LCGs are much more expensive than your average board game should you decide to expand your game at all. And if you do pick this game up, you should probably plan to expand it. The base box, which includes a campaign of three scenarios and five investigators, will give you a decent amount of play but hardly any deck customization options, which is half the fun. In that case, I’d be much happier just investing in a one time purchase of Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition.

Major Takeaways

I know I really like a game when I get this far into an article, and realize I still have so much more I want to say! Unfortunately, I just can’t squeeze everything into a written review and expect anyone to read it. So I won’t even delve into deck construction and how you gain experience for further deck customization throughout a campaign (awesome and awesome). I’ll also spare you from discussing how in love I am with my current Jim Culver deck, which I’ve optimized to fill a support role of tanking hits and gathering clues, while my fellow investigators deal the damage.

Another example of the beautiful art.

Instead, I’ll leave you with my three biggest takeaways from AH:TCG so far.

Number One – Scenarios I’m incredibly impressed by how different each scenarios is. Not only do they attack you in different ways, but the objectives to accomplish completely alter how you need to play the game. One players deck may really shine in one scenario and have limited effectiveness in the next. So far I’ve played six scenarios in total, the three scenarios in the starter set and the first three scenarios of the Dunwich Legacy campaign, and no two are anything alike. I’m optimistic that by virtue of the incredible core game Fantasy Flight has put together here, that this will remain true moving forward. There is just so much space for designers to play.

I haven’t talked about the story itself because #NoSpoilers, but I’ve pleasantly enjoyed it. You don’t get much more than a couple paragraphs before and after each game, but the writing is good. The descriptions on the cards do a great job of building out the place, and the plot does enough to present some great cinematic moments.

Number Two – Where have you been all my life?As someone who’s come to board games fromMagic: the Gathering, I wish this had been around to teach all the people I tried to get intoMagic, but it never clicked with. Once you’re into a game’s competitive scene and have spent tons of time improving your play to a high level, it makes teaching the game to new players a losing proposition. Considering it takes brand newMagic players years of playing before they’re on equal footing with veteran players, it’s no wonder that the people I pressured into learning never seemed to enjoy playing with me that much.

But now we have AH:TCG, a game every bit as fun and challenging as Magic. A game where you can enjoy brewing and tweaking decks, with the bonus of testing them with a solo game. It is also a game that I think is essentially on par with Magic in terms of complexity to learn. Both games have a fairly simple core, obfuscated by lots of keywords to memorize. However, both games also have enough intricate timing interactions to guarantee that a players’ time and effort put in to learning the minutia of the rules will absolutely be rewarded in their play.

The big difference, obviously, is that now you are playing on a team with the buddy you just taught. Any skill gap between the two of you matters so much less in this case, and I’ve found that just makes all the difference in the world in reducing the barrier of entry to new players.

Dylan and Alek throwing down.

Number Three – Ameritrash for Eurogamers I often hear people say that Blood Rage is the Eurogame that you can get your Ameritrash friends to play. Well, in my opinion, AH:TCG is the Ameritrash game that Eurogamers will enjoy. Yes, the game is fundamentally built around a random chance mechanic in the chaos bag, but this is not a Mansions of Madness style dice chucking fest. (No offense! I love that game too.)

In AH:TCG the gameplay is all about resource management, and there are a lot of resources you are asked to manage here. You have your hand of multi-use player cards to manage, which present the very interesting decision of when you should spend resources to play the card for its ability, and when you should commit the card to a skill test — boosting the stat of yourself or a teammate, but discarding the card and foregoing its other ability. That’s enough to think about on its own, but there is also life (can I take a damage here?!) resources/money (which of these do I play!), bullets (pew pew), and, perhaps most importantly of all, the precious resource of time. The game’s agenda deck is moving forward each turn, which really ramps up the pressure and intensity of each decision.

The Verdict

I’ve mostly been gushing about the game, so before giving my final rating, here are two things that I imagine some players will find problematic.

First, I’ve found in my plays that sometimes the narrative can get lost in the midst of so many brain burning decisions. The onus is definitely on the player here to marry mechanics with the theme. It does all make sense, but you have to take a second and think about it. For example, I’ll have to stop and remind myself that it makes sense that it would take extra time to search for clues in a massive library rather than the game spelling it out for me. This doesn’t bother me much because the reason this game I’m playing is the game play, but I imagine it would bother people that want a fuller narrative experience in their games. If that is you, then there are definitely better games out there for that.

The second is the randomness. I’ve talked a lot about the how cool the chaos bag is, and it is really cool. I haven’t even mentioned how it allows for endlessly customizable difficulty settings by curating the tokens however you want. But, no matter how you slice it, this is a mechanic that injects a lot of chance into the game. If you are someone who prefers games with no luck at all, then it is certainly possible that you won’t like it here. It can be hard to stomach pulling the one auto-fail token after sinking your entire hand into a crucial skill test. There have been times where I’ve felt extremely frustrated after playing for an hour just to lose to terrible luck at the very end. For me, these moments are the price you have to pay for the incredible elation of pulling the elder sign token in the clutch, or the satisfaction of making a brutal choice to sacrifice a great card to your buddy’s skill test and it pays off. At the end of the day, I love it for the emotion it injects into the game, but not everyone will feel the same.

Without further adieu, here is the scale I’ve decided on for rating games.

1: Won’t play – This game has nothing of value. 2: Begrudgingly Play – It’s not for me, but there are at least some good things about it. 3: Gladly Play – This isn’t a game that I need to own, but I like it overall. 4: Actively Play – I want to own this game, and will seek out opportunities to play. 5: Need to Play – If I’m not playing this game, I’m probably thinking about playing it. 6: Will Die if I Don’t Play – The perfect game. I may never give out this score.

All things considered based on this scale, I’m giving Arkham Horror: The Card Game five stars.

It’s a high recommendation from me, and I especially recommend jumping in if you are aMagicplayer looking for a way to get some friends into gaming with you, or you want your heavy euro game group to expand their horizons into something a bit more emotional and thematic.

This is easily my most played game of 2017 so far, and my excitement to get this back to the table is only growing as more cards come out to deck build with, and we get deeper into the first large campaign. I’m absolutely loving this game so far, and having a ton of fun with my first LCG experience.

Thanks for reading.

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What’s a 2GGC Civil War?

The Civil War is starting today and running all weekend (March 24-26). With 47 of the world’s 50 best players in attendance, a story line crafted around the game’s biggest rivalry, and culminating with a marquee 10 v. 10 crew battle between the two warring factions, 2GGC Civil War is poised to be Smash 4’s biggest moment.

If you aren’t familiar with the video game and burgeoning e-sport Smash 4, formally titled Super Smash Bros for the Wii U, then you are missing out. Smash 4 is the super fun fourth iteration of the wildly successful Super Smash Brothers franchise. In the game, players take of control iconic video game heroes and villains as they fight to knock each other off floating islands called stages. And that is pretty much all you need to know to take in your first game of Smash.

Though there is an incredible depth of strategy under the surface, like so many other great spectator sports, the overall object is simple enough that a first time viewer shouldn’t feel lost. For example, a novice soccer spectator won’t understand the tactics of the 4-5-1 formation, but they’ll still feel the excitement of the ball advancing towards the opponents goal, the nervousness when the opponent is pressing forward, and the bliss of a goal.

The same principal is true here. You don’t need to understand advanced techniques like ledge canceling, jab recents, and auto canceling fast fall aerials to be able to understand that Mario is kicking ass in this clip, and it’s awesome to behold.

It’s really a great time, and you should be watching this weekend as the action and drama unfolds. Here’s the streaming schedule, and you can tune in right here.

Fantasy Smash

It isn’t just the game itself that makes Smash 4 fun, it’s the players. And to that end, 2GG has partnered with Smash.GG to bring in an additional feature that makes the viewing experience even more fun – fantasy smash bros.

It works just like a daily fantasy football. You have a set budget that you spend to add players to your team. A player’s price is dependent upon their tournament seeding and expected finish. The better a player finishes ultimately, the more points you get. Pick your 12 player team without going over budget and you are good to go.

I love this for the same reason I love Fantasy Football. It gives me a reason to care about games I otherwise would not. Listen, I’m a Kansas City Chiefs fan and always care about their games, but watching two other subpar teams without a rooting interest is pretty boring. However, as soon as Isaiah Crowell started carrying my fantasy team last year (probably tells you something about how good my team was overall), you better believe I was excited to tune into the lowly Browns games to cheer on my boy. Throw dem pizza lunchables on the field! (explicit language warning).

It’s the same deal here. I love smash, and love watching it. I have players I naturally root for because they are from my part of the country or because I like there play style, but this just makes the tournament viewing experience as a whole, so much more exciting.

I highly recommend you join in the fun.

My Picks

There are just way to many incredible players heading to this tournament to even begin to go over all of them, so I’m just going to who I picked for my fantasy team to give just a small sample of the huge array of competitors in this stacked field.

The most expensive player in the field is well worth the price to your fantasy team. The leader of the #TeamZeRo faction of the civil war has been the most dominant player in the world throughout the life of this game. Points get exponentially higher with better finishes, so why not start building your team with the odds on favorite to win the tournament. When ZeRo’s Diddy Kong pushes his opponents off the ledge, they might as well just put their controller down because ZeRo seems to have every option covered with his suffocating, precise play style.

The current number three ranked player in the world (check out the Panda Global Ranking for the full list) and biggest Smash 4 streamer is a great addition to any squad. Recently, Nairo took a trip to Japan to play in a last chance qualifier for their biggest tournament Tokaigi. He won that qualifier and went on to win Tokaigi itself, dispatching many of Japans top threats – who will be in attendance at Civil War – in the process. His achilles heal is ZeRo himself, an obstacle he just can’t seem to overcome (or avoid). On the ohter hand Nairo should be favored in virtually any other match. Plus, lets be real, everyone has a ZeRo problem.

Currently ranked 8th in the world, but this 16 year old kid from Mexico is better than that. Ask anyone. When discussions of who can surpass ZeRo come up, it’s usually MkLeo that is brought up first. Despite struggling to get his footing in his first few appearances in the states, MkLeo was able to notch his first major victor with a 1st place at Genesis 4. This master swordsman switches between Marth and Cloud depending on matchup, and has taken numerous sets off ZeRo himself. At this point Leo must be considered a top threat in any tournament he enters.

Zack’s incredibly flamboyant personality is mirrored by his spicy, unpredictable play style that is a perfect fit for his character of choice, Bayonetta. Zack is perhaps most famous for his taunts both inside the game and out of it. As you would expect, this kind of behavior brings a lot of attention and scrutiny, but so far Zack has walked the walk – finishing 5th at Genesis 4 and 5th at Frame Perfect Series 2 last weekend. Leaving a trail of frustrated opponents in his wake, Captain Zack is certainly making a case for himself as the best Bayonetta in the world. You do you Zack!

Coming from the midwest region where there aren’t as many high profile tournaments, Shoyo James is a bit less of a known quality. However, this might work to his advantage while fighting players who will have to adapt to his play on the fly (though that goes both ways). What we do know about his play is that he’s very, very good. He and his Diddy Kong even knocked off Ally the number two ranked player in the world in January. James will be looking to improve on his 33rd place finish at Genesis 4 at Civil War. I think he just might do it.

Well this one is sure to be controversial. Wrath, another young gun with tons of potential, has a very divisive style. He plays Sonic and tries to do so optimally – even when that means running away from the opponent for minutes on end trying to run out the clock. He’s done this to claim wins over Ally and other top pros. Last week, he won an online tournament hosted by Nairo, while playing covertly under a friends tag. This, of course, caused even more drama, while proving once again Wrath is really good. Let the hate fuel you, young Wrath.

Not going to lie to you guys, I haven’t caught too many of JK’s games on stream. Here’s what I know. He’s the number one player on the Las Vegas Power Ranking, over the likes of FOW. FOW being a crowd favorite who was selected to participate in the Civil War crew battle and is priced at $150 for this tournament. So you’re telling me I can get a guy ranked higher on the local PR for a third of the price? Sign me up for that. He also plays Bayonetta, which you might be able to tell is a character I’m buying fantasy stock in.

This has to be a mistake in terms of pricing. I don’t know how you can justify not picking up Zenyou for a mere 50 bucks. Remember that Mario clip I linked earlier, well that savage beating was dished out by none other than this dude right here. So aside from the electric, combo based play that gets the people going, he’s also put in incredibly solid 5th and 9th place finishes at the previous two 2GGC events. What gives with this pricing? Pick him up, the steal of the tournament.

Edit: I just learned Ryuga will be unable to attend for family reasons
I’ve decided to slot the Japanese Donkey Kong main, HIKARU, into this slot.

Another great value. One of the best Michigan players, which happens to be a hot spot for smash talent. Perhaps best known for his exceptional doubles play, Ryuga is absolutely a threat in singles as well. With his Corrin, a character with absurd range, Ryuga applies a forces his opponents to space perfectly around him. Most are not up to the challenge. For the value, I’ll take my chances on this player who got 17th at Frostbite 2017 along with the likes of Captain Zack, Ken, Komorikiri, Ned, and Abadango, all of which are well over $100 here.

This one is a bit of a homer pick, as Shaky is the only player in the tournament I’ve fought myself (besides one game against ESAM on For Glory!). However, this is far from a throwaway. Despite dropping off this year due to inactivity, this is a player who ranked 16th in the world in last years Panda Global Rankings. When he has shown up to tournaments this year, he’s done well – claiming an impressive 33rd place finish at both Evo and Genesis 4. This shows he still has the skills to play with anyone, and if he has been secretly preparing for this tournament… watch out for a run that could catch a few people sleeping on Sunday.

Fuwa is a Japanese Marth main, who has already impressed so far in her first appearance in the US. At Frame Perfect Series 2 she took a respectable 33rd, and at a stacked Wednesday Night Fight event (with many players preparing for Civil War), she claimed 13th. This bodes well for Fuwa to return tons of value at this price. I expect that as the nerves of playing in the states calm down, her play will only continue improve. The scary thing is that her results in Japan indicate we haven’t seen anything yet. At $30, what more can you ask for.

Kome is another underpriced Japanese player that I’m happy to snap up for my squad. One of my strategies is to pick players who main good characters. Well, that doesn’t apply here because Kome is a Shulk main (far below the likes of Bayonetta, Mario, Diddy Kong, and Marth on tier lists). That said, he is in my estimation the best Shulk in the world, and that can cause problems. Not only may people be unfamiliar with the matchup, they certainly haven’t played a Shulk like Kome’s before. One problem with this theory is the other player vying for the title of best Shulk, Nicko (also $30), is from Southern California where Civil War is taking place. Maybe Kome will end up facing players with more experience in the matchup than he’s used to. Regardless, it will be fun to see what happens.

Wrap Up

There you have it. The only thing left to do is make your fantasy team before singles start Saturday morning, and then to see if you can top my own killer squad.

You’ll see me at the top of leader board (I hope). Team name: Benjalz’s Yallzs

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed the content you can hit me with that follow on twitter @Chicken_Fryd!

All of these incredible images are credited to @SPIFspace. Please hit him with a follow and check out his website here!

Well I’m back with another review after a brief year-long hiatus. So let’s not wait any longer to plunge into this deep dive review of Broom Service the 2015 hit board game by designers Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister and published by Ravensburger.

Broom Service is an incredible game – sleek design, amazing mechanics, and filled with delicious decisions to agonize over. Since picking this up a year ago, as I was first getting into board games, Broom Service has consistently flown from the shelf to my table. So often, in fact, that I’m compelled to write this review in part to talk about when you should not play it!

If you, dear reader, haven’t tried this one out yet, you should really give it a look!

Now let’s talk about what makes this game so great.

Design (25 ft)

For starters, it just looks damn good on the table.

Oooh so inviting

The art has a whimsical, family-friendly fantasy vibe that welcomes any player in. Take a look at these adorable almost Miyazaki-esque characters on the cards.

Cute right?

It’s a breath of fresh air compared to the washed out beige styling of so many of our beloved classic Eurogames or the down right panic inducing layout, bits, and iconography of many others.

Only seven rounds of play ensure you’ll still be having fun at the end of the games incredibly reasonable 30-75 minute run time. (Wait that says 30 minutes?! Okay that is a bit of a stretch. Maybe if you are just two players with a background in speed chess.) But it isn’t just rounds constraints that makes this game quick, it plays fast (and feels faster) thanks to some ingenious mechanics that pack fun, meaningful decisions into every moment of play.

Mechanics (50 ft)

How are the mechanics then? Oh my god, I love them so much. I’ll just talk bout the two that really give this game shape: the Brave/Cowardly systemand the hiddenaction selection.

1. The Brave/Cowardly system, unique to this game, works like this: whenever you play a card, which represent one of your four action in a round, you must declare whether you are brave or cowardly.

For example, lets say you play the mountain witch card. If you choose cowardly, you take your action immediately. Your witch meeple dutifully flies to a mountain territory. However, if you play brave, you must wait until each other player reveals whether or not they are holding the mountain witch card. If someone reveals a mountain witch of their own, they can now bravely play itand cancel out your action entirely. You see, there can be only one brave mountain witch, but it gets to fly to a territory & deliver a potion there. Think of the value!

Be brave for me baby.

On each of your ≈28 actions of the game, you face this crucial gambit. A choice that evokes all the emotions of rolling dice or playing poker. Do I push my chips in the middle and let ’em ride, or fold to the pressure of my opponents unrevealed card?

Of course it isn’t really luck, is it? Because unlike Texas Hold’em, my opponent in Broom Service isn’t holding a random card. She is holding the cards she chose at the beginning of the round, adding an element of deduction to the decision unlike anything you’ll find at a poker table.

What you end up with is a unique Euro-style mechanic, dressed up in the lights and action of Las Vegas. And it all boils down to this scene: you sitting at a table of friends declaring, triumphantly, “No, I am the brave weather fairy!” Beautiful.

“No, I am the brave weather fairy!”

2. The second mechanic I want to touch on is the choice to use hiddenaction selection because it is really what makes the game tick. It’s very straightforward. Before each rounds, each player secretly chooses four of the ten available action cards. Those are the actions they will take during the round of play.

This turns the action selection mechanic almost into programming, where good players will visualize not just what they need right now but also four, five moves from now. Not to mention, thinking about the actions your opponents will likely take, how you may be able to force them to play cards out of order, and how your opponents may attempt to blow up your own well laid plans.

But it isn’t just a fun and strategic way of doing action selection, its also what moves the game along at such a rapid clip, despite how heady these decisions are. Separating the action selection from the round of play essentially removes the one question players AP (analysis paralysis) over the most, interrupting play and frustrating players everywhere – what’s my next move?

Sorry folks, you already made that bed at the beginning of the round, and now nothing to do but lie in it.

The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Everything I’ve said so far indicates that this is a perfect introduction to the board game hobby: inviting artistic design, short runtime, familiar mechanics, and easy to understand game play. All of this is 100% accurate.

Now say you’ve been cultivating your friend, Ben’s interest in gaming for the past few weeks and now he’s shown up to his first ever game night.

The trap has been set.

You suggest tried and true games from your collection for new players: Catan, Pandemic, and Ticket to Ride. Ben looks through your Ikea shelving packed with all manner of games. He stops to look at another box more closely. How about this, Ben inquires, sliding out your beloved copy of Broom Service. Well, you think, I am getting a little tired of Catan, maybe this is a good option.

And… the trap has been sprung.

Don’t worry, I’ve fallen into this trap more than once myself. It’s easy to do, because Broom Service has all the necessary pieces for an excellent intro game; yet, these parts just aren’t put together in the right way for that experience.

For one, Broom Service is unforgiving – like the brutal-savage-rekt kind of unforgiving.

You only get 28 actions to complete whatever you set out to do in the game. And if it is your first go, Broom Service effectively takes your hopes and dreams of what you might accomplish, wads them up into a tiny ball, and dunks them in the trash can as you watch, mouth ajar.

New players might not realize that as many as 1/3rd of those 28 actions, sometimes even more, will get straight up denied by your opponents. Your opponents either canceling out your brave action with their own or forcing you to play your Valley Druid card before you’d planned, and now don’t have the potion you need to deliver with the druid messing up your entire round. Yeah, it can be rough.

To make matters worse, there’s no catch up mechanic here, and playing from behind is actually just far worse. Now you are forced to take unsafe actions to make up ground. Well, you can probably already see the problem there.

I want to be clear, I don’t think this is a problem with the game. I love how challenging Broom Service is and, thus, rewarding when you pull off an incredible sequence. I love the tension that comes from taking the risk during action selection to make that possible, and I recognize this is only possible because of all the other time my grand designs were smacked down in the first couple rounds.

A new player, however, probably won’t feel this affection. When Ben is sitting in last place by a sizable margin, instead of recognizing everything that makes this game great, he might just think this isn’t fun.

The Verdict (Depth: 100 ft)

I’ve had many great plays of Broom Service, but I have had a few bad experiences. The good news is those bad plays are completely avoidable now that you know about the trap. Instead, of starting a new player off with Broom Service, play those tried and true intro games. Ticket to Ride is my personal favorite. It’s not my favorite game, but I still have fun every time I play it. Other people choose Catan or Pandemic or Splendor or-

My advice, get them hooked on these first. And once Ben has a few plays under his belt and starts to realize that board games are actually awesome, you will have Broom Service teed up to blow his frickin’ mind.

Oh and one more word about content. Broom Service comes with so much content in addition to the standard game that it was probably just a poor business decision not to hold some of it back for an expansion, but hey I’ll take it! (Thank you Ravensburger games!) It comes with an advanced board on the reverse side of the standard board, storm clouds tiles, hill tiles, mountain tiles, forest tiles, and amulets. All of these components can be added or subtracted to to your taste, but all change the gameplay significantly, and are all really fun to play with.

Once you’ve played through the base game a couple of times, just add in everything and jump to the advanced board for the full experience. It’s incredible, and I waited far too long before trying out the complete game myself. Regret!

However, when it comes to buying Broom Service absolutely no regrets at all. I’d give it four brave witches out of five and put it right up there with my favorite euro games, like Five Tribes and Castles of Burgundy. For its value though, Broom Service is a ten on any scale. You can get it for $25 on Amazon right now. So if you are someone who loves great games, and are currently throwing hundreds of dollars at Rising Sun miniatures, but don’t have this one yet, I don’t know what else to say but jeeze.

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All the best,

Jake

]]>https://chickenfrydgames.wordpress.com/2017/03/15/broom-service-the-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/feed/4BroomServiceDeepDive3-01jakefrydman815D0521-A71D-46D1-B651-511DA1595B81414E3E9A-DAB9-4376-BA91-C4D088AC0C98F056F786-E6F5-4A3C-9E16-15A9786A68DE8C4D99A8-F1DA-40A8-A1EB-AF73E669FA9640036C45-7ABD-4526-846D-2F1958FBAA03A3BB1FB5-DA51-4EF6-A549-B780986F5ED43 Games To Play (or Not) With the Person You Lovehttps://chickenfrydgames.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/3-games-to-play-or-not-with-the-person-you-love/
https://chickenfrydgames.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/3-games-to-play-or-not-with-the-person-you-love/#commentsMon, 22 Feb 2016 03:14:03 +0000http://chickenfrydgames.wordpress.com/?p=961Preface – High Stakes Gaming

Stop me when this sounds familiar. (Or you can skip this and get on with the reviews. I can’t tell you how to live your life.)

Between me and my girlfriend Bridget, I’m the one who is more enthusiastic about the board game hobby.

Bridget is supportive of my interest in the sense that she’s willing to play games with me, but I’m still the one who’s suggesting setting up a game and spending our limited time together playing with increasingly complex pieces of cardboard. Even though she tells me she enjoys playing, sometimes I wonder if what she is really saying is, “I know how much you enjoy this.”

Still, It’s my hope that one day Bridget will be just as passionate about gaming as me.

I’m guessing this is sounding familiar to at least a few people. At the very least, it has become clear to me while browsing reddit.com/r/boardgames that I’m not alone in this relationship dynamic.

It seems like every day someone is asking for suggestions for a great game to introduce their S.O. to the hobby, or for the best two player game to play with their S.O. who, notably, “is not a gamer.”

And based on my own experiences, I can tell why these are such important questions to ask.

The stakes are high.

I mean what board gamer wouldn’t want their S.O. to love games and want to play all the time. On the other hand, what if they have a terrible first few experiences, and then are less likely to want to play in the future.

Ultimately, this means that when Bridget and I play a game, I’m not just hoping to have fun myself, but hoping that she will come away from the game with a more positive perspective of the hobby in general.

Perhaps, this is an unfair expectation to put on a game, but it’s there.

With this in mind, I’m going to recount my experience playing three games (Five Tribes, Legendary Encounters: Alien, and Dead of Winter) with Bridget over Valentines Day weekend. I’ll give my opinion on whether each game will help that special person in your life realize their own passion for board games or run the risk of putting them off board games forever!

Friday Before Valentines Day – Five Tribes

When Bridget asked me what I wanted to play on her first night in town, I jumped at the opportunity to pull out Five Tribes.

Because my roommate was watching a movie in our living room, we busted it out on the bedroom floor. Where there’s a will (to play), there’s a way.

I was feeling bad for this one-armed merchant until I remembered he’s a slave trader.

As I discussed in my review of all the games I played in January, I’m a huge fan of this game. It is definitely my favorite two player game in my small but growing collection. The two player variant works great, and it adds a zesty twist by allowing each player to go twice each round.

This opens up the opportunity for crazy high scoring combo plays by skillfully positioning yourself through the (sexy) turn order bidding mechanic to go up to four times in a row. I’ve found this has the tendency to bump up scoring by about 100 points, i.e. 50% (sexier) more scoring.

This was our third play of Five Tribes, splitting the previous two. I ended up winning this time in a game that felt competitive throughout. Even though I ultimately won by a healthy margin, the game does a great job of obscuring just enough information to make it really hard to know exactly how the scores will shake out, before the final tally. This keeps players invested and the game exciting.

This particular play was pretty fun, – brace yourself, the “but” is coming – but there were a couple of times when Bridget had to ask me for advice on what to do. Now this may seem incredibly nit-picky, and I was happy to point out the move I thought was the best available. However, I know from experience that this means Bridget is getting a tiny bit frustrated.

I don’t blame her for needing some help or getting frustrated. FiveTribes,at times, has the tendency to make a person just feel dumb.

It’s the kind of game where you can find yourself looking at the board for five minutes and then realize you forgot what you were trying to accomplish in the first place, and now you’ve wasted five minutes of everyone’s time and are back to square one. I know this from experience.

Bridget is the type who wants to win by virtue of her own smarts alone, so asking for advice feels almost like a concession. Understandably this is frustrating. Looking at the board and failing to find the move that she needs is also frustrating. It’s a catch-22 of sorts.

I’m in a tough dilemma here because Five Tribes is so, so good. If your S.O. is already an experienced gamer, then by all means play this game together!

Unfortunately, Five Tribes is probably not the best choice for introducing your S.O. to the amazing world of games for a couple of reasons:

It’s too open. The game just gives you too many options from the start without any kind of road map or natural progression. This is one of the things I love about the game, but it also functionally means all players must know all of the rules at the beginning of the game. Learning the rules as you go doesn’t really work because everything you can do at the end of the game, you can do on turn one.

Difficult to understand choices. In Bridget’s first play, she told me afterwards that she didn’t really understand why she was doing various things. This in effect takes away all the interesting, hard decisions you have to make through out of the game. Instead, you are just doing things randomly because you can, which in reality is a lot less romantic than it sounds.

It’s frustrating having to ask for advice all the time. If you do play this one with a less experienced gamer, then they should be warned upfront that they will have no chance of winning and the first game should be viewed as a strictly learning experience.

It can make you feel dumb! Self explanatory.

It’s a great game, but there is just no getting around the fact that it’s a tough one.

Now that I’ve set the mood, let’s dim the lights because it’s time for the Chicken Fryd Pop Quiz of the Week.

What do you do, when you want to play a game, but your girlfriend doesn’t want to get out of bed?

You pull out your copy of Legendary Encounters: An Alien Bed Playing Game. Wait… that’s not quite right.

Oh well.

Believe it or not, I have played a game on a table before.

I’m not going to do a deep dive into my overall thoughts about the game because I’ll be covering in my end of the month blitz review anyways, but I will say this.

It’s pretty good — pretty, pretty good.

However, when Bridget saw me haul over this gigantic box, unwrap the play mat with its thirty-ish different zones, and then fish through the box for the umpteen different decks we’d need to begin playing, let’s just say it wasn’t love at first sight.

I could see her skepticism was growing by the minute, so I had to make a snap judgement call. Either I begin a lengthy rules explanation, or we just dive right in to the game.

I went with the latter option and (enter hubris) promised everything would be fine.

“Don’t worry babe,” Captain Frydman said in his sure, confident manner of speaking. “We’ll check out this little S.O.S., then it’s nothing but smooth sailing all the way back home sweet home.”

“After all,” he added, “nothing ever goes wrong in space.”

That was about the time we started playing the game, and to my surprise, I was absolutely right.

Okay sure, we died horribly, but diving right into the game really worked well for teaching how to play.

Unlike Five Tribes where new players can be overwhelmed by the multitude of choices, in Legendary Alien you are limited in what you can do in any given turn by the resources you have available.

On the first few turns you’ll only be able scan one or two things and maybe choose between a couple of characters in the barracks. It takes a couple minutes to explain these choices, but just like that you are playing the game, making meaningful choices.

I really didn’t know how Bridget would respond to this game because it’s so different from anything else we’d played before, but she loved it. When we did end up dying off, we were able to figure out some mistakes we’d made that probably cost us the game.

We immediately set it back up to played round two, and we won in an incredibly exciting game that came down to Bridget alone, winning the turn before she would have taken a final, deadly strike.

If it isn’t obvious by now, I would highly recommend Legendary Encounters: Alien for the purpose of introducing your S.O. to board gaming.

Here’s why:

Learning as you go makes teaching the game a breeze. One problem new players face when learning rules, is trying to visualize how a rule learned in the abstract will work within the systems of the game. No need to worry about that here.

It’s cooperative. I think starting introducing your S.O. to gaming with a cooperative game is a good idea in general. Rather than being at each others throats the whole time, your working together for a shared goal. You’re killing aliens together and, honestly, what could be more romantic than that?

It’s cooperative, but it’s not solitaire. I’ve played my fair share of cooperative games where it feels like just one person is running the show. (in all honesty, I have the tendency to do this, but I’m working on it!) Legendary Encounters: Alien deals with the alpha gamer or quarterbacking issue in the best way I’ve yet, wait for it, encountered. (Nailed it.) In this game you are building your own deck and dealing yourself a hand each turn from that. As a result, even if players are trying to tell you what to do, you can only do those things because of the deck you’ve built. This gives each player ownership over their actions, even if they were decided as a group.

It tells a story. This isn’t as important to me, but Bridget loved this about the game, so I’m including it.

So there you have it. Honestly, I was surprised how well this worked for us. I wasn’t surprised, however, when Bridget ranked Legendary Encounters: Alien number one out of all the games she’s played so far. I could tell how much fun she was having while playing, and that is the best thing I can say about a game in this context.

Needless to say, this one will definitely be hitting the table (or bed) many times again in the future.

If you do choose to use this as an intro game, then maybe just set it up ahead of time. Also, you’ll probably want to make sure the theme isn’t off putting for your S.O.

Speaking of which…

Valentines Day – Dead of Winter

Yeah, you are definitely going to want to set this up ahead of time (oh, and well you’re at it learn the rules), instead of what I did, which was ask Bridget to learn how to play it with me.

Some of you are probably groaning right now (or laughing) at my foolishness.

In my defense Bridget had previously told me that she really liked Splendor because we learned it together, so I thought (yes, foolishly) that it would be a fun experience to learn the game together as well.

This was my first mistake. Folks, this is not Splendor.

Bridget making a racket.

Before playing I had read and watched many reviews hailing Dead of Winter as a great narrative game, a game that creates a story as it goes. This aspect of the game had Bridget and I really excited to try it out.

After playing I can see how it has the potential to tell a great story (more on this later), but that doesn’t mean it’s not also a heavy, complex board game — much more so than I was expecting.

Now some people might say that the game really isn’t all that heavy or complicated, so allow me to explain.

Like Five Tribes this game gives players a ton of options, in the form of actions they can do on their turn. Unlike FiveTribes,however, these actions aren’t intuitive — some actions are free, some require dice, some require dice compared to certain stats on a card, some require you to roll a certain dice done, some you can only do from certain locations, some you can do once per turn, some you can do multiple times, etc.

On top of this, the rulebook is pretty, pretty terrible. We found that it isn’t always clear and damn near impossible to find what you are looking for in a reasonable amount of time.

So yes, once you play a few games it really isn’t that complicated, but it sure gives off that impression on the first play.

Prior to playing, while I was punching out the beautiful little zombies and characters (pretty, pretty beautiful), I had Bridget watch a how to play video that I had watched previously.

Here is where I made my second mistake. I told Bridget that she could be our rules expert.

So we get down to playing the game and things begin going downhill immediately.

Bridget, our rules expert, has the first play because she has more leadership stat points, and decides to move her character to the school to start killing zombies. She has to roll the hateful, but awesome twelve-sided movement die to see if she makes it safely.

Of course she rolls the tooth and dies instantly, a one in twelve chance. We knew this was a brutal game going in, so it wasn’t a deal breaker for us. It was just one of her three characters after all. I still think it’s worth pointing out because I can easily see how your best fighter/favorite character/dog dying on the first play of the game could be a turn off to some players.

The problem for us was what happened next. Bridget went to draw a new character from the deck, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t the rule, so I suggested we look it up in the rules.

Eventually, we found the passage where it said that you don’t get a new character until you lose all your survivors, but here I am already correcting our rules expert in the first turn of the game. This would happen several more times in the first round, where I wasn’t sure about something, and insisted we look it up.

Bridget was getting extremely frustrated to the point where she suggested, essentially, that I always thought she was wrong and should just shut up about it.

We were not off to a good start.

Bridget’s frustration was completely justified. I had put her in a position to learn all the rules of this very complex game, take ownership of them, and then I was second guessing her each time she explained something based on a video I had watched a few days before.

When we looked in the rule and it turned out, more often than not, that we were messing something up, it wasn’t because she did a bad job learning the rules, or I had done a better job watching the same video, it was just because the rules are complicated, nuanced, and in many cases unintuitive to boot.

I mean who wouldn’t get frustrated in that situation.

Halfway through the game, after a considerable bit more frustration, I suggested, deflated, that we just put the game up and maybe try another time.

Bridget wanted to finish it out, so we did, losing badly — to be expected for a first game. We also tried the harder version of the objective because we were playing fully cooperative, but this was a very bad idea.

Damn you hubris!

I was surprised, based on how our first game went, but Bridget wanted to give it a second try. We selected an easy mode objective this time and began again.

The second game did go a lot better and we were even having fun at times. One thing in particular that I enjoyed was the hateful movement die from before. It adds a ton of drama to an area which is mundane in so many other games, moving.

Ultimately, we lost again, and realized it was because we were making yet another stupid rules mistake by playing each “food” card for a single can of food without realizing that some can be worth two or even three cans.

Damn you food cans!

Overall, the experience left a lot to be desired. To be perfectly honest, I still wasn’t sure we were playing parts of the game right at the end of the second game, which was particularly frustrating considering the hell we’d been through to figure them out.

Is this a terrible game then?

Surely not.

It’s ranked 21 on BoardGameGeek.com for a reason, and I’m looking forward to trying this again with a larger group and a better understanding of the rules.

Still, based on my experience with the game so far, I must strongly recommend that you do not play this with your S.O. who’s new to board gaming. Moreover, I don’t recommend you playing it with your hardcore gamer S.O. either.

Here’s why.

The fully cooperative variant leaves out so much content. It leaves out secret player agendas and the potential for a betrayer plus all the sub game that comes with it — suspicion, secrecy, back stabbing, exiling players, exile objectives. To play without all of this just feels like you are missing out on a big part of the Dead of Winter experience. I have read that the betrayer variant works better with two, and I’ll try it if I ever feel the desire to play at two again. (Maybe someone in the comments can convince me.) Regardless, this isn’t really an option when you are first learning the game or playing with a new player anyways.

I also think the crossroads mechanic is broken with two players. Maybe we just got incredibly lucky/unlucky, but, in our two full games, we didn’t trigger a single “crossroads” card. This is because so many of the requirements to trigger the events are based on certain characters. With only two players, the vast majority of characters aren’t in play at any given time. On top of this you, only get the opportunity for two to potentially trigger each round. The lack of these narrative events really left the story telling part of the game lacking. Even ignoring the problems we had learning the rules, the crossroads issue combined with the missing elements in cooperative play left me feeling like this game is really not meant to be played at two, despite what it says on the box.

Steep learning curve for new players. The unintuitive nature of the mechanics, even with the player aids, combined with the multitude of actions you have from the start of the game will probably give even the most experienced players pause.

Clearly, I made a big time mistake by not learning the game very well myself before playing it with Bridget. This is teaching board games 101 and it isn’t the fault of Dead of Winter that I blew it. However, for all the reasons listed above and how many other great games are out there, I just think you can do better at the two player count, whether you and your partner are experienced gamers or not.

Having said all that, as I write this review I’m organizing a four or five player, full betrayal variant game of Dead of Winter for tonight. I haven’t given up on this game at all, and I’m looking forward to giving it a more holistic review at in the February review roundup.

Conclusion

Five Tribes — I do not recommend for playing with your S.O. who is new to gaming, but I highly recommend playing with your S.O. if you are both experienced gamers.

Legendary Encounters: Alien — I highly recommend using this game as an introduction to gaming for your S.O. or anyone else in your life. I also think you would have fun with this at two players even if you are both experienced gamers.

Dead of Winter — For the love of god, don’t play this with your S.O. who is new to gaming if you ever want them to play another game with you, and probably don’t play this with your experienced gamer S.O. at two players either.

P.S.

After reading a draft of this article, Bridget felt that it was necessary to leave some recommendations for games we do enjoy playing together because apparently offering up just one good option isn’t a very good list.

Without further ado, here are the three games that Bridget recommends. (Maybe y’all can bug her into offering up explanations in the comments.)

Splendor

Codenames

Five Tribes

So maybe do play Five Tribes as an intro game. What the hell do I know?

Anyways, thank you so much for reading.

I’ll end on Bridget’s advice to the ladies and gentleman out there who find themselves on the other side of a relationship with a board game addict.

Remember it’s just a game and a new thing you can do with the person you love.
-Bridget

D’awww

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]]>https://chickenfrydgames.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/3-games-to-play-or-not-with-the-person-you-love/feed/12IMG_0365jakefrydmanwcb3gjgIMG_0384IMG_0391alien_3IMG_0393rutfkjgBoard Game Blitz Reviews – January 2016https://chickenfrydgames.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/board-game-blitz-reviews-january-2016/
https://chickenfrydgames.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/board-game-blitz-reviews-january-2016/#commentsWed, 10 Feb 2016 04:42:34 +0000http://chickenfrydgames.wordpress.com/?p=848There are lots of game reviewers out there who already put out incredible content. However, I’ve noticed that there isn’t as much coming from the perspective of someone who is just beginning to explore the hobby.

For this reason, I decided to take it upon myself to quickly review all 12 of the games that I played in January — Pandemic, Ticket To Ride, Settlers of Catan, Five Tribes, Puerto Rico, Resistance, Love Letter, Catacombs, Splendor, Exploding Kittens, Spyfall and Hive. Hopefully you will enjoy some insight from the perspective of new board gamer.

You won’t find much in the way of numerals in these reviews, so for the quantitative learners out there, you can find a tier list of all the games ranked from favorite to least favorite at the bottom of the article.

Pandemic (2 Plays)

I know the theme is off, but this is basically how I feel trying to confidently lead my team to victory in a game of Pandemic.

And here is a transcript of how that usually goes.

Me: “Alright, as long as we don’t hit Kolkata, Delhi, or Karachi we’ll be fine.”

Confidently flip Cards over

Team: “Did we hit them?”

Me: “Yup”

Team: “Well, how many cubes do we get.”

Me: “Lots.”

In all seriousness, Pandemic was my first modern board game. I thought a board game would be a good gift for my SO’s parents. We tried out the game ourselves, so we’d know how to play and teach them, and that was all it took for me to become obsessed with the hobby. If that isn’t an advertisement of Pandemic as a gateway game, then I don’t know what is. I rate Pandemic a score of “lots” out of 10.

Ticket To Ride (3 plays)

I like to say “chugga” each time I lay down a train segment, as in “chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, choo choo, that’s 15 points, mother fuckers!” Jeez, I must be great to play with. Okay, so maybe don’t do that.

Here’s the thing, I’ve had fun each time I’ve played, and, importantly, I’ve felt like I learned something each time I lost. Yes, it’s simple. Maybe it’s not quite as satisfying as a really solid, competitive game of something more complex. Those games, however, are harder to come by for a variety of reasons. TtR can be picked up and played with anyone, and it’s fun.

Watching your train empire grow is fun. Make train noises if fun.

It may not be the deepest movie in the world, but it’s good, old fashioned, fun, also trains. I give Ticket to Ride a “3:10 to Yuma” out of 10. Wait, what was I talking about?

Settlers of Catan – 1 Play

Let’s have a serious chat about Settlers of Catan.

Listen. Your friends love this game. You love this game too. Well, you did until you played it 600 times in college. Now you’d just rather play something else.

Unfortunately, every time your friends see Settlers on your shelf, next to all your shiny, new games, they want to play Settlers. What do you do?

Here’s what I do when talked into a game of Settlers. I take out the 2 and 12 tiles. I replace those with an extra 6 and 8. If the expansion is available, just tiles from that, but I’ve used bottle caps in the past. I also play with the “friendly robber rule”, which says that the robber can only be placed on a space where one player on the tile has at least 3 victory points. If a seven is rolled before anyone has three points, just re-roll.

I’ve found that these variant rules speed up the game considerably. They also help solve the games biggest problem, which is the potential to be essentially eliminated in the first couple turns because you are getting bad rolls and the robber is blocking your brick, so how are you supposed to expand exactly?

Deep breath.

That said, the moment when someone is going to win the game so long as they don’t roll a 7 on themselves, is just great theater.

All things considered, I give Settlers of Catan a rating of “NPR” out of 10.

Five Tribes (8 Plays)

You are just going to have to trust me on this one.

If you like Magic: the Gathering, then you will probably like Five Tribes.

Literally dozens of people reading this will think, “Wait, what? They couldn’t be more dissimilar mechanically.”

Just hear me out.

Being good at MtG, aside from buying expensive cards, is all about quickly determining your most likely route to victory and following it and being able to adapt that strategy as the game state changes.

MtG people will know what I’m talking about.

Five Tribes is exactly this. Each game begins with a near infinite number of possible directions to go in. Players who can quickly sleuth out which of these directions lead down the path of victory, while being able to change course as the games landscape changes will put themselves in a position to win. It’s amazing.

A quick word about the Solo variant.

I love this game, so when I saw that Days of Wonder had released a solo variant, I had to give it a try. I’ve played it twice and, unfortunately, it just doesn’t work for me. My main gripe is that the mechanic you are playing against is dice rolling. Taking a eurogame with, essentially, no luck at all and then wrapping it around dice just doesn’t feel right to me. In one of my games I rolled a black 6 on three of my first seven rolls. That will mean nothing to the vast majority of readers, but it meant the game was over. I lost and there was absolutely nothing I could have done to stop it. Admittedly, I got very unlucky, but that in itself is the problem. I guess I just don’t want bad luck to play a huge factor in this particular type of game.

I’ll never hold a solo variant against a game because it’s just a bonus that gives the game extra utility, but in this case I’m not awarding any bonus points either. Still, I give Five Tribes a rating of “1 palm tree, 1 palace, and 1 vizier” out of 10 gold coins.

Resistance (7 plays)

Here’s what I know for sure. I’m in the resistance.

Also, I trust no one.

I think that’s what is s beautiful about the game. It’s a game of information, but the information you get is so, so limited, especially if you are in the resistance.

If you’re in the resistance, then this is basically you.

Knows Nothing

I’ve heard that people tire of this game, but I played for the first time ever this month and it was an absolute riot. We played it five times in a row that night, and I think people kept playing after I had to take off.

It’s just the right amount of deduction and just plain lying to your friends faces. There really isn’t much else to say.

I rate resistance a “Success” out of 10, and you will too, unless you’re a filthy spy.

Puerto Rico (1 Play)

I played Puerto Rico for the first time this month when my friend brought it over for a game night. Out of the 5 of us, only one person had played before, so it was very slow going as we played through the first round of the game.

We had intended to start over after a practice round, but by that point everyone felt good about just continuing the game. I was absolutely wowed by this game. Just how everything fits together: the tight systems, the way everyone ended up going in different directions, the synergies you can discover, the way everyone must be actively engaged each turn, and the way you can indirectly manipulate the opportunities other players will have once it is their turn to play.

This was really my first experience with a heavier eurogame, and I absolutely loved it. I’m very much looking forward to playing more games of this type in the future, but for now, and even though I only played it once, Puerto Rico gets my first ever “Chicken Fryd 10” out of 10. An actual number, what is this?!

Love Letter (3 Plays)

I felt like I must be missing something the first time I played Love Letter against my SO. I played a card, then she played a card, we compared hands, and I lost the round. Of course this was just 1 of the 7 wins you need to win the entire game of Love Letter, but it did feel a little underwhelming losing in all of 20 seconds after hearing so many great things about this game.

Perhaps I had built it up a bit too much in my head.

Since then I’ve played with a full four player game, which was much more enjoyable. There are some interesting decisions to make, and there definitely is some strategy and bluffing. I’ve come to realize it is great for what it is, a fun, simple game you can carry around with you anywhere.

But should this game be considered one of the best games around? I don’t think so. But hey, that’s just my opinion, and that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It is and I give Love Letter a rating of “good” out of 10.

Catacombs (1 Play)

I was very excited to try Catacombs as my first ever dexterity game besides beer pong, which I love. As you can imagine, my expectations were very high.

Unfortunately, this game just has a lot of problems. All of which stem from the fact that its balance is off. In my one game, the balance didn’t even feel remotely close.

I was playing as the Catacomb Lord against 3 of my friends, one piloting 2 characters. I took note in the rules where it says it is up to the Catacomb Lord to make sure the game is fun for all players, and began the game with that mindset.

What I didn’t take into account was just how much of an advantage the Catacomb Lord has. Often twice as many units (discs you flick around the board representing monsters in the dungeon), and those units have special abilities that are on par with or stronger than the abilities the heroes can acquire.

I also didn’t expect that my friends would get annoyed knowing I was sandbagging fights. Unfortunately, if I actually tried to win, then they would get frustrated because of how badly they did.

Ultimately, it turns out playing bad on purpose and still winning isn’t very fun for either side.

The mechanics of the game, building a character, optimizing abilities, and even the dexterity aspects, all appeal to me. I want to play again testing some house rules I’ve thought of to hopefully address this problem because the potential of this game makes it worth working for.

Unfortunately, a game that asks a player to work this hard to make the game fun, just feels unfinished… even if the concept is really, really awesome.

Catacombs, I want to Love you, but I just can’t love you out of 10.

Splendor (10 Plays)

Splendor is the game I played most this month, but I feel the need to parse out what that means.

Splendor is super quick to teach. If you have an hour of time and new players, then Splendor is a great game to get to the table. You can teach all the rules and get through a couple games in an hour, unless someone has particularly bad AP.

It just so happened that as I began exploring the board game hobby this month, I found myself in a situation where I was trying to get non-gamers to play games with me quite a bit. I was fortunate to have Splendor in my collection for these situations.

However, I have also been running a weekly game night, which has more gamer-types attending, and have not felt inclined to break out Splendor there, so I do have a few criticisms for the game.

Similar to Ticket To Ride, the game is incredibly simple on its surface with a ton of depth hidden beneath. Unfortunately, at least for me, the action of picking up a gem card and getting a discount is a lot less interesting than building trains across America. Building a train from LA to San Francisco feels like an accomplishment. Picking up a card worth 5 points, though huge in the game, just doesn’t feel the same way.

Additionally, in Ticket To Ride every decision you make seems to be amplified because of the potential effect it may have on your or somebody else’s destination card. Splendor just doesn’t feel like it has the same kind of high stakes decision. For some people this may be a feature because it does feel a little more laid back, but I like the drama of TtR.

Don’t get me wrong; you will still agonize over tough decisions in Splendor. Splendor is good, and it is my most played game of January for a reason. I look forward to playing it many more times. I just haven’t had any one game of Splendor that I came away from saying, “Wow, that was amazing!” Instead each game has just been quite nice. I would give Splendor a rating of “I’ll take things that are nice for $600, Alex” out of 10.

Exploding Kittens (1 Play)

I played this once and just didn’t have any fun. The cards were amusing, but I didn’t make me laugh out loud reading the cards. This isn’t to say some people wouldn’t find them hysterical, and more power to you if you do, but even then a joke is only funny a finite number of times. Right?

I didn’t feel like there was really any gameplay here besides a tiny bit of bluffing. You just kind of play out your cards and either you win or you lose. Again maybe I just haven’t played this enough and people will tell me I’m way off, but in our game one guy got lucky and stole a couple of defuse cards (they save you from getting blown up, which is important) and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. This is one game that I’m not really interested in revisiting, unless perhaps as a brainless drinking game. Hmmm… In terms of explosions, I rate Exploding Kittens “a dud” out of 10.

Spyfall (1 Evening)

So one thing I learned is that Spyfall is really hard for people to play if English is their second language. I also learned it can be absolutely hilarious to play with people who have English as a second language.

I invited over a few friends to drink some beers and play a game or two one night. One person brought a mutual friend, Cheney who is from China, over. Unfortunately, that bumped us up to six people, which was more than I could accommodate with any of the games I owned.

Luckily, I had previously played Spyfall using the browser version of the game once before, and we decided to give that a go. In Spyfall one person is a spy, who doesn’t know where they are, while everyone else knows where they are, but not who the spy is. If the Spy can find out the location before the group figures out who the spy is, then the Spy wins. Otherwise, the group wins.

It’s a simple concept, but the way you play is by asking nuanced questions and giving even more nuanced answers, so as to hint to the other players you know where you are without giving away information to the spy. It’s challenging – even for native english speakers.

When it was Cheney’s turn to ask a question, he thought very hard for about a minute. When he finally spoke, the question that came out of his mouth was, “Do you like uniform girls?” — a pretty funny question to ask a fellow police officer. Of course, this was met by uproarious laughter from the group. It was a beautiful moment, and I rate Spyfall “Uniform Girls” out of 10.

Hive (2 Plays)

I played Hive twice in one night and lost both times, so obviously the game is terrible. Just kidding. It’s a fun game, but it takes the right kind of person to really enjoy it I think.

The chess comparisons I’ve heard about this game feel apt. It’s got a very intense, one on one, battle of wits feeling, where every move you make is either a step closer towards victory or sealing your own defeat.

I probably average a game or two of chess a year, and usually at someone else’s request. The problem with Chess and probably Hive as well is that it’s difficult to find games against opponents equal in skill because the skill ceiling is so dang high. Furthermore, each person begins the game on equal footing and with no luck whatsoever to even things out. That means that when you lose it is only because you were outplayed, which can be hard for some people to take (like me).

Hive, however, is a quicker game than Chess. That means the losing player, hasn’t sunk as much time and effort into the game, which makes them more likely to say, “let’s play again.” Rather than in Chess where the losing player is more like, “That was fun, let’s do it again in a year.” Okay, maybe that’s just me as well.

I can definitely see why this game is so highly regarded, but the other night when my friend asked if I wanted to play a quick game at the end of game night, I found myself not really inclined to play. I just think it might not be the right kind of fit for me. For that reason, I rate Hive a “you say yes, I say no” out of 10.

Tier List for the Quantitative People

-Chicken Fryd Game of the Month-

Puerto Rico

-Great-

Five Tribes

Resistance

-Very Good-

Ticket To Ride

Pandemic

-Good-

Spyfall

Splendor

Catan

Love Letter

-Hmmm-

Catacombs

Hive

-Boo-

Exploding Kittens

Hi guys,

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You may ask yourself, out of all the infinite possibilities, why would this guy choose to build a game based on a children’s playground game?

Fair question. I’ll try to answer that with-

Why not make a game about bloodthirsty barbarians bartering bananas, or a game about space dwarfs racing north following in the footsteps of the great race that came beforeth? Now that – that would be a game, you nod affirmatively.

Yet out of all the possible game themes I could choose, I indeed chose kickball

And here are the the Top 3 reasons why. Let’s go!

I’m passionate about it

What is the first step in designing a game?

(bear with me, I’ll get there.)

I think there are two logical places to start.

The first is figuring out what mechanic you want to utilize in the game and then building around it. Maybe you’ve come up with a way to use dice in a unique and engaging way. From there, you can begin wrapping layers around the mechanic adding depth, complexity, and story. Ultimately, you hope to end up with a game.

This is probably the tidiest and most efficient way of going about things.

However, I’m guessing that the most common starting point is to simply say to oneself, “I want to make a game about Space Dwarfs”.

Note: Doesn’t have to be space dwarfs.

The design trajectory then becomes working backwards, a consideration of important questions like, “how the hell am I going to make a game about Space Dwarfs.” Thus begins the all important trial and error process of actually building a playable game. Hopefully after you’ve done that, the game is also enjoyable. If it’s not, then it’s time to try a new approach.

Although this method is definitely a round-about, the designer is guaranteed to be passionate about theme, which gives the final product character and heart.

Think about it like this… Nobody says, “I want to make a game about the Third Punic War” if they have no interest in the ancient roman squabble, and without that passion, the game will probably end up a pile of heartless manure if they go ahead with it anyways.

My love of playing kickball in Lawrence, Kansas is the reason number one why I chose kickball as the theme of a board game.

I could go on for a long, long time about why I love kickball and how it is the greatest sport ever, in the world, period, end of discussion… Instead, just watch this video!

An incredibly talented friend of my team put it together for us last season. If your curious, I’m the guy in the American flag bandana. Yes the one with the weird t-rex arms in the picture at the top of the page.

Yes, I know that there may not be a huge built in market for kickball, but I’m the one spending the time and energy to make the game, so I better make something I’m excited about; in the end I think the game will be better off for it.

I love the character(s)

The character and characters of the Kaw Valley Kickball League (KVKL) provide an incredibly rich source of material that I can draw from while building the game.

One thing I absolutely love about that video is how well it captures the spirit of KVKL and the eclectic, eccentric group of people that make up the league.

The lush character(s) of the league has been a huge point of inspiration for me thus far in my game design.

For example, when I say I want to incorporate a booze mechanic that makes players more prone to errors as they consume more beer (in the game), it’s not just because I think it would be a funny and interesting mechanic, but also because in it’s a part of the game.

In the KVKL level of beer intake is a question that captains and players actively think about when strategizing. How drunk is the other team going to be at this point of the of the game? Is our team too drunk to pull this off? Should I have another beer even though the game is tied up and my next kick will be crucial?

Likewise, these are the type of questions that the player will have to grapple with while playing Kickball All-Stars.

In the KVKL there are a variety of approaches. Some very competitive teams have gone as far as to implement beer bans during the game, while others winning teams hang their hat on their ability to drink and still perform. One guy is even known for shotgunning a beer before every kick. As I was saying, the league is full of rich characters.

Why is this so amazing from a design perspective?

It’s because when I design a player card like Drunken Master, a character with the special ability to improve as they drink more beer,it’s not just an ambiguous concept; I’m literally talking about that guy who shotguns a beer every time he kicks and seems to just get better.

Being able to draw inspiration from these KVKL realities is a luxury I intend to use.

It’s just so much fun

It’s true. Nothing beats playing kickball. If you don’t agree with that statement, then you haven’t played kickball recently.

Because everyone I know who plays agrees, kickball is the best.

(Commence list within a list, we have to go deeper.)

Anyone can play

Unlike most sports, which have a high barriers of entry, kickball has none.

To play soccer competitively you need to be able to run continuously for 90 minutes. Well there goes 80% of the population. On top of that you have to have incredibly precise foot-eye coordination. Welp, there goes another 15% of people.

The point being, if you take 22 people off the street and get them to play soccer, chances are that not very many of them won’t really have the skills to play.

But, take those same people, put them on a kickball diamond, and let the good times roll. You don’t have to run for long periods of time. Catching kickballs is pretty easy. Most importantly though, kicking a ball rolled slowly at you is easy too. You might not get on base every time, but that doesn’t matter because the act of kicking a ball as hard as you can is just plain fun.

It’s a kids game

Why this is such a great virtue may be less obvious, but if you play in a local recreational softball, soccer, or basketball league, then you will know what I’m talking about.

Here’s why.

Normal rational adults tend to turn into crazy people when competing against one another.

In kickball this is much less common. Don’t get me wrong, people can still be hot headed, but this time you are equipped with the ultimate trump card.

Just say, “dude, we’re playing kickball right now.”

Say that and antagonistic people tend to recognize they are getting unnecessarily angry, calm down, and begin having fun again.

It’s magical.

The possibilities are endless

Yes. You can have a blast just kicking the ball as hard as you can every time. However, hitting the ball with just enough curve to bend over the infielders and in front of the outfielders takes skill, finesse, timing, and strategy.

Like any sport, there is no limit to how good you can be. Just in this one, it’s much easier to be relatively competent, but even if you aren’t it’s still fun.

Looking at this list of reason’s that makes kickball fun, I’m realize these are the same things I love about my favorite board games.

I want this board game to be simple enough that anybody can pick it up and play right away.

I want there to be a layer of strategy and depth below that so a player can become skilled at the game as they play it more.

Finally, I want it to be fun and not take itself too seriously. This isn’t chess, it’s a game about kickball and beer. And when you get your girlfriend/boyfriend out, they’ll still be having fun because, hell, it’s kickball!

So there you have it, an incredibly long winded explanation of why I chose to make a board game based on kickball.

And if at this end of this article you still think that a game about Space Dwarfs sounds better than a game about kickball, then you should go make it.

For me, however, I feel like the best game I can make right now is about kickball, and that’s the game I want to make.

Here’s how you can stay up to date on the project:

Like the blog to get notifications when there are new posts.

Join the email list HERE to receive emails with important project updates.

I will use this blog to document the development process of creating and hopefully publishing a tabletop board game based on my favorite sport – Kickball!

In this first post you will find a brief overview of the concepts that I’m currently working with, but, as it is still in (very) early development, nothing is yet set in stone.

Thanks for checking out the blog and I would absolutely love to hear any feedback about the game or website.

-Jake

Game Concept:

Working Title: Kickball All-Stars

The game of bunting, banging, booting, and boozing.

Genre: Party game

Mechanic: Rock, paper, scissors with a wrinkle.

Sub mechanic: Inebriation, as your player in the game drinks beer he/she will be become more prone to errors. Note: you don’t have to drink to play, but it’s encouraged.

Players: 2-7

*There will be a variant for 2 players*

Very Brief overview:

Each player begins the game with four cards: Bunt, Bang, Boot, and Booze.

These are what you will use to kick and defend. They will never be discarded.

A successful Bunt results in a single, a Bang results in a double, a Boot results in a triple, and Booze, well, Booze gives the player a beer.

Any time you gain points while kicking or defending successfully draw that many cards from the Fun Deck. At the end of the game the player with the most cards in their hand will be crowned the MVP of the Kickball All-Star game.

Turns

The players take turns acting as the kicker, while the rest of the players form the defense. At the beginning of each players kick, they choose whether to attempt a single, a double, a triple or home run. Each is worth an increasing amount of points.

If the kick is succeeds (e.g. the player advances the amount of bases they were attempting or more), then the kicking player wins and gets to draw cards from the Fun Deck equal to the number of points he/she earned based on the kick attempted. These cards may be amplifiers that can make certain kicks better, more difficult to defend, or be extra victory points.

All other players act as the defense for that round. The defense discusses what the player might try to do to have a successful kick. Each player then plays 1 of their 4 base cards face down in front of them. If the card matches the card of the kicker, then the kicker will be out and the defense wins!

*Amplifier cards may change the outcome*

If the defense successfully defends, then everyone on the defense gains 1 point (e.g. draws 1 card).

The kicking player will always chooses their kick after the defense has all played there cards, so that they can decide based on what they can infer from the conversation while the defenders were selecting their cards.

Mechanic – Booze

On offense:

The kicking player may, after listening to the defense, decide to play his/her booze card instead of a kick if they don’t believe they will be able to succeed in their kick. If he/she does, then the kicking player automatically gains 1 point and draws a card. They also must add 1 beer to their player.

On defense:

Any player may play a booze card face down instead of a kicking card. If the defense is successful, then they will gain an additional point and add a beer to their character.

If the kicking player uses booze, then only defensive players who played booze will gain 1 point and add a beer to their character.

After kicking successfully, you must roll. If your roll is less than or equal to your level of inebriation, then your kick will fail. In this event only players who played booze on defense will gain 1 point.

If you defend successfully with busing a Bunt, Bang, or Boot card, then you must also roll. If your roll is less than or equal to your inebriation, then the kick will succeed. If multiple players defended correctly, then all must roll. The kick will only succeed if all defenders who played the correct card fail their drunk check.

End of the game:

At the end of the game, after each player has kicked a pre determined number of times (innings) whoever has the most cards in their hand (points) wins.